ROME (AP) _ Pope Benedict XVI made an emotional visit Sunday to Rome's main prison, meeting with detainees, denouncing prison overcrowding and calling for greater dignity for inmates everywhere.
Benedict spent over an hour at Rome's Rebibbia prison, fielding questions from a half-dozen inmates who spoke of their despair at being kept in overcrowded cells, away from their families, some of them sick with AIDS.
The 84-year-old pope told the 300 men and women gathered in the prison chapel that he loved them and prayed for them. He reminded them that Christ was imprisoned before being sentenced to ``the most savage punishment'' of all _ death.
``Inmates are human beings who, despite their crimes, deserve to be treated with respect and dignity,'' he told them. ``They need our concern.''
Benedict decried Italy's overcrowded prisons and urged the government to overhaul the system so that prisoners aren't subjected to a ``double punishment'' by serving time in insufferable conditions.
And he noted that justice doesn't have to just be about righting a wrong, but also showing mercy. For God, he said, ``justice and charity coincide; there's no just action that isn't also an act of mercy and forgiveness, and at the same time there's no merciful action that isn't perfectly just.''
The prisoners seemed truly grateful for the visit, with more than one wiping tears from his eyes as Benedict responded to their pleas. And Benedict himself seemed touched by their heartfelt welcome: One inmate gave him a picture he had made of a white dove perched on prison bars; another showed him a photo of his newborn baby girl; another read out a prayer he had written about feeling forgotten by God.
Benedict said he hoped his visit to Rebibbia, which houses some 1,700 inmates, would not only give encouragement to the prisoners as Christmas nears, but would draw attention to their plight.
On hand for the visit was Italy's justice minister Paola Severino, who acknowledged the pope was visiting a ``place of profound suffering.''
There are an estimated 68,000 inmates in Italian prisons, 22,500 more than capacity, Italian news reports said. Just last week, the Cabinet approved measures to ease the overcrowding, making it easier for people to be placed under house arrest and requiring judges to confirm arrests within 48 hours.
Severino stressed that pre-trial detention _ which is a major factor in overcrowding _ must be abolished for all but exceptional crimes. She read a letter to the pope from a detainee in a Cagliari prison to make her point.
``It's sad and frustrating to have made a mistake because sooner or later, you begin to question yourself and your ability to make amends and be reinserted into society, and you become convinced of being unable to change your life,'' the letter read. ``You lose hope that you can be accepted as someone worthy of esteem, stained forever, and you lose the strength to live.''
Benedict responded by saying that a reform of the system should make use of alternatives to detention.
After greeting a handful of prisoners and police officers one by one, Benedict stood by as a cypress tree was unveiled on the prison grounds to mark the occasion.
Pope John Paul II made a historic visit to Rebibbia in 1983 when he met with and forgave Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who had shot him in St. Peter's Square two years prior. Agca finished his sentence in Turkey and was released in 2010.
In a 2002 visit to the Italian parliament, John Paul appealed to Italian authorities for clemency for some prisoners.
<한글기사>
교황 "교도소 수감자 존엄하게 다뤄야"
교황 베네딕토 16세가 18일(현지시간) 로마에 있는 교도소를 방문해 수감자들을 존엄하게 다룰 것을 세계에 촉구했다.
베네딕토 16세 교황은 레비비아 교도소를 약 1시간 동안 방문해 수감자 300여명에게 설교를 한 뒤 수감자들로부터 질문을 받고 응답하는 시간을 가졌다.
교황은 이탈리아 교도소가 정원을 넘는 재소자를 수용해 수감자들이 고통을 겪고 있다며 각국에 교도소 환경을 개선하고 수감자들을 존엄하게 다룰 것을 요청했다 .
일부 수감자들은 교황에게 교도소 생활의 고통을 호소하고 눈물을 흘리는 등 설교는 매우 감동적인 분위기에서 진행됐다.
교황은 예수가 사형에 처해지기 전 감옥에 갇혔던 사실을 상기시키고 "수감자들은 죄를 범했지만, 인간으로서 존경과 존엄으로 다뤄져야 하며 관심을 필요로 한다"고 강조했다.
그는 이탈리아 교도소의 심각한 정원초과 실태를 지적하고 전반적으로 제도를 개선해 수감자들이 수형과 고통스러운 환경이라는 "이중의 처벌"을 받지 않도록 해 야 한다고 지적했다.
그는 "정의는 자비와 같은 것"이라며 "자비와 용서가 아닌 정의가 없고 옳지 않는 자비란 없다"고 말했다.
교황은 1천700여명을 수용 중인 레비비아 교도소 방문을 계기로 세계가 수감자들의 고통에 관심을 두기를 바란다고 강조했다.
이탈리아는 수감자가 6만8천여명에 이르러 교도소 정원을 2만2천500여명 초과한것으로 집계되고 있으며 이는 대부분 형이 확정되지 않은 미결수들이 많기 때문인 것으로 분석되고 있다.
이 때문에 가택 연금 제도를 활용하거나 구속 수감 수사를 최소화함으로써 교도소 정원 초과 실태를 개선해야 한다는 지적이 적지 않다.
앞서 요한 바오로 2세 교황도 지난 2002년 이탈리아 의회를 방문해 수감자들의 처우 개선을 요청한 바 있다.
